Bridging the Gap BetweenPrivate Memories & Official History Comfort Women Until now, the fracture between individuals’ private memories and the official history that comfort women were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military over the 20th century rendered such individual memories as taboo. There’s a lack of conversation that integrates both the individual pain that each comfort women endured and are still enduring through trauma and the politically-charged demand for a formal apology that contemporary Koren citizens require of the Japanese government. The process of listening to and speaking about the experiences of comfort women is meant to challenge the existing historical discourse and oppose the unified strategy that simplified and diminished the experiences of survivors. The goals of historicizing the experiences of comfort women are to recognize such experiences as being a part of “women’s history” that were previously monopolized by national history and to properly present the stories from the perspectives of the survivors. Read Her Story Read Her Story Jeon-Yeop Gong Read of her story of being lured to Pyongyang with the false promise of work and being forced into sexual slavery in China (Haicheng, Shanghai, and Harbin) by the Japanese military from the age of 15. Jeom-Dol Jang Abducted in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul, Jeon-Dol Jang spent years as a comfort woman from the age of 16 for Japanese soldiers near the Mudan River, in Manchuria, and later, Singapore. 2000 1990 1980 1970 1960 1950 1940 1930 1920 1910 Year of Birth Year Abducted Year Reported 1 1 1 2 2 9 Created by Grace Moon Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipi